


Rekindled Bond

by ADashOfStarshine (ADashOfInsanity)



Series: The Terrors of Tin Street Series [4]
Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, fits into the Terrors of Tin Street AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22639792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADashOfInsanity/pseuds/ADashOfStarshine
Summary: Upon losing faith in the Gatewatch's mission on Dominaria, Chandra chooses to take a different path. Her life hasn't been the same since Nissa parted from their group. Her thoughts filled with how much she misses the elf's presence in her life. Now she has her chance. Under the excuse of recruiting Nissa to help on Ravnica, she finally has the time to tell Nissa how she feels. Unfortunately, she has to find her first and Zendikar is one big place.This story coincides with "The Terrors of Tin Street" Chapter Fifty. You don't need to have read Terrors of Tin Street to enjoy this, but please note this is part of an AU where the events of War of the Spark happen very differently.
Relationships: Chandra Nalaar/Nissa Revane
Series: The Terrors of Tin Street Series [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1376662
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	Rekindled Bond

Chandra was in a predicament. She often was, but this was a particularly large predicament that was roughly the size of Zendikar. A few days prior, she had made a decision. After a few months of training, and a few weeks more on a legenary airship of all things, she had come to realise a few things. One, she didn’t trust Liliana as much as she had on Kaladesh. Secondly, her mentor wasn’t exactly the woman she said she was. Thirdly, not having Nissa around anymore had made wherever Chandra currently was, a significantly worse place. So, when Jace turned up with a headwound and half his clothes missing, she’d rather welcomed the distraction. However, that had only raised the same doubts and fears. Jace was adamant that nobody should be trusting Liliana, and had even shown her his memories to prove it. Plus, he knew where Bolas was headed next and it certainly wasn’t Dominaria. Jace had also raised a good point from his sick bed. Why would a dragon with a god-complex like Bolas let a legendary sword just lie around if he knew it could kill him? Bolas could not know about the sword, but she kind of assumed the dragon knew everything by now. So why did the Blackblade still exist? It just didn't add up. Bolas was a tyrant and tyrants didn't let any threats to them exist. The only logical conclusion Chandra could come up with was that Bolas didn't think the sword was a threat. So, why were they still chasing it?

Jace had mentioned something about leylines and how the Guildpact worked. Of course, as soon as she heard the word ‘leylines’, she’d thought of a certain elf. And as soon as she thought of a certain elf, her mind was fixated on Nissa, finding Nissa, talking to Nissa and anything that might happen in between. She offered to go find her. Hoping deep down that there was some sort of logic to reuniting with lost friends. As far as she understood, Jace had been found by his long-term roommate, short-term lover, when he’d appeared in the middle of nowhere on Ixalan. So maybe, if she turned up on Zendikar, some sort of attraction-related magnetism would draw her close to Nissa? Regardless, she offered to go find her so they could both help Jace and his plan for Ravnica. Leaving her in the situation she faced now.

It turned out she didn’t have any attraction-based magnetism. Or if she did, Nissa was too far away for it to work. It just so happened that Zendikar was extremely big, and finding one elf in its immensity was like trying to find a match in a woodpile – impossible but also rather flammable. So she’d tried visiting some of the places she and Nissa had fought the eldrazi together. No such luck. She’d tried asking around and just ended up confusing a lot of the locals. Increasing frustrated, she tried to send a giant flare up into the sky in the hopes it would catch Nissa’s attention. All that resulted in was the accidental roasting of a small bird. It was too charred to even eat, so Chandra was forced to let it be.

She travelled with greater and greater irritation and with a vague notion that elves liked to live in trees. Yet no sooner had she found her first forest, then she’d encountered a whole plethora of nasty things that wanted to eat her. Ash-covered and now a little bloody, that had also been a failure. She’d wanted to burn the whole place down in anger, but Nissa would absolutely hate that, so she was forced to consider other options.

As she travelled, she encountered a small waterfall. It was surrounded by pleasant greenery – flowers, shrubs, more than a few brightly coloured frogs that croaked at her as she trod around the pool at its base. It reminded her of Nissa’s attempts to teach her meditation, and instantly knew what she must do. To find Nissa, she must think more like Nissa. Consider what Nissa’s priorities were and where she might go now she had the run of the plane. So Chandra sat, by the banks of the waterfall, and thought.

And thought.

And thought until the sun went down and the area got rather cold. 

Nissa had left to take care of her own plane. Which meant she was likely somewhere the eldrazi had affected deeply, trying to repair it so new life could start anew. That included a lot of Zendikar, and didn’t really give Chandra a direction. So instead she started to think of what signs Nissa might leave that she had been in a location. _New plants_ – though Chandra wasn’t sure she’d be able to tell the difference between new and old. Besides, if the area was fixed it would just look like everywhere else. _Elementals…_ At the thought, Chandra opened her eyes as if struck by a bolt of inspiration. That was it! Elementals. They were huge and powerful; someone would notice if a bunch of elementals started moving around trying to fix the place. That would be where she’d go. She’d ask people if they’d seen any elemental activity about, and she’d follow those signs to Nissa. It was the best idea she’d had so far!

So, she went into the vast unknown of Zendikar’s wilder places. For two days, she was the only living person in sight. She saw plenty of deer, birds and rabbits, but no people. Not until noon of day three when she encountered a small group of Kor camped upon a hillside. The Kor were as surprised to see her as she was them. They invited her to sit by the campfire and share their noon-day meal, to regale them with stories of what she’d seen on the road. They were much relieved by her lack of eldrazi sightings – apparently the spawn still ran rampant in some places. The Kor were a very small group, only four in total, parents, a grandparent and a toddler. They were heading back the way Chandra had come, towards civilisation. She told them a little about the places she’d been, and in return asked for any signs of elemental activity. The grandmother muttered something about feeling the bedrock moving up north, back the way they’d come. Chandra took this as the best lead she’d got so far and thanked the family for their generosity.

Perhaps she should have thanked them for their warning too. She travelled north, following a beaten old stone path, its cobbles long overgrown with grass and berry bushes. Yet as she crested the hill, she spotted something odd in the distance – a wiggling cloud. She stared at it, blinked, and yet the cloud still wiggled. Frowning, she continued down the hill, keeping her gaze upwards as she approached the undulating form. It was over an hour before she could see it properly, and when she did, her heart stopped.

Around thirty eldrazi were swimming in the air. Their twisting serpentine bodies had given their ‘cloud’ its bizarre wiggling form. They were plated in white bone, not unlike their sire, their horned heads and sheer white hue reminded her distinctly of Ulamog. Yet these were no brainless spawn. These sky-skimmers appeared to be moving as a flock, wending their way through the air in perfect synchronicity, fast approaching Chandra at a speed she’d certainly underestimated from the hill. Heck, they could probably make the distance in less than half the time she had. The longer she stood there, the faster and faster they seemed to approach. And there were so many…

The Kor!

With a gasp of horror she remembered the little Kor family she’d just met. Would they be able to see the eldrazi coming? No, surely the hill would block their view and… what were they going to do against flying opponents anyway? The little family were clearly not suited for battle, and four kor against thirty eldrazi? They were done for!

With a cry, Chandra let loose a wave of flame overhead. There was a slight scattering of ash as several charred eldrazi soared on overhead. However, she hadn’t distracted them, or hampered their path. They seemed utterly unphased by her presence, and that only sought to infuriate her. She let loose another spurt of flame. One eldrazi dropped to the floor in a cloud of smoke, but the throng carried on without it. As Chandra watched, the single felled monstrosity flailed about on the floor before slowly rising back to join its fellows. Its carapace-like exterior was heavily burnt, but inside, it seemed disappointingly intact. Chandra bit her lip in frustration. She couldn’t let these monsters reach the Kor family. The little camp would surely be decimated! If a blanket of flame couldn’t stop them then… Chandra let out a loud huff before switching tactics. Think of what Nissa would to. Think of what she’d just learned. If wild bursts of fire weren’t doing it, well, maybe she needed to focus.

Scowling with the intensity of her concentration, she let loose a singular fireball, aiming at the middlemost flier. It hit, and the creature let out a low ‘bom’ as it exploded, like a singular deep drumbeat, as it was reduced to less than ash. She did it again. This time with a target that was slightly further away. Once again it connected with a small explosion, the fireball momentarily lighting up the corpse before it was incinerated entirely. Chandra’s grimace turned to a grin. She let loose three more fireballs. Bom. Bom. Bom. The eldrazi exploded like fire-crackers, incinerated in moments, leaving bursts of bright flame in the air. Though her focus, Chandra was dimly aware that her newfound focus was very impressive. Her blasts were controlled, knocking one or two sky-skimmers from the air at a time, rather than just torching the whole bunch. The intensity of her fireballs were having a much better effect that her attempt at taking them all out at once. So she kept at it. Creating a drum-beat of popping eldrazi as they detonated overhead. Jaya would be impressed. However, there was no time to go running back to Dominaria to let her know. There were dozens upon dozens of these things and way too many for those Kor to deal with. So she just kept on firing, fireball after fireball, focused blast after focused blast. The explosions echoed out over the plains for miles around, the sky lit up, burning bright as each small explosion blossomed and then faded, like a field of poppies blooming and then dying in a matter of seconds.

The sky was swiftly becoming a lot clearer, but the remaining eldrazi wouldn’t stop moving. Chandra chased after them, her aim becoming a little off as she picked up speed. Soon there were only half a dozen of the things left, but they were so far ahead, that even she went at a flat out sprint, she knew she couldn’t reach them in time.

“Agh!” she cried, releasing two more fireballs only to have them disappear aimlessly into the clouds. Even six of those things would give the Kor a beating. She had to get to them, she had to do something before-

**Crunch.**

A massive arm, pillar, spike…? Something large and rocky suddenly slammed down upon the remaining eldrazi, knocking four out of the sky and crushing them against the ground below. One was clasped in its gnarled hand-fist-thing and as Chandra watched on in shock and awe, another confection of stone and earth shot up to knock the final monster out of the sky. Chandra stepped back as the ground shook beneath her feet. The scattered remains of the eldrazi shuddered on the floor, disappearing into the cracks and crevasses formed by the arrival of this… thing. No, this elemental. This was surely an elemental. Over ten-foot-high, it towered over Chandra, shedding loose soil and bits of vegetation as it withdrew two of its six limbs before lowering itself so it stood on all six boulder feet. It was insect-like in its composition, massive clumps of earth and rock making up each section of its body – some still with trees and other plant-life clinging on for dear life. It had two rocky pincers that thumped together with the immensity of an earthquake, rather than the click of chitin. However, more importantly than its size, or even the birds that flew from its form, was a sight that Chandra welcomed with a cry of joy. Atop the elemental’s head, staff gripped in one hand whilst the other held on tight to her creation, was the very reason Chandra had returned to this plane in the first place. She immediately started waving, jumping up and down, resisting the urge to set off a flare of joy – not wanting to risk the elemental’s ire.

“Nissa! Nissaaaa! It’s me! I’m here to see you!”

There was a moment where she continued to wave and bounce before the elemental lowered its head, allowing Nissa to jump down with grace. Chandra immediately ran over to her, almost hugging her, before realising that might be a bit too much for the elf to cope with right now. Instead she withdrew her arms and opted to wave again.

“I can’t believe I found you! Or, I guess, you found me! It’s amazing!”

Nissa seemed rather taken-aback by her exuberance – or at least as taken-aback as Nissa could look. She took a small step back, putting more room between them as she said:

“You’re here? Why?”

“I wanted to see you!” Chandra replied, “No, I _needed_ to see you.”

Was that too clingy of her to say it like that? She was so excited, she wasn’t very in control of what was coming out of her mouth.

“You were right. About everything! About Liliana, about how she was trying to manipulate us! How we shouldn’t have been on Dominaria, and we should fight Bolas instead. Jace found us and he told us what Bolas’ plan is, and how Liliana’s been manipulating us since Amonkhet. Gids is still brainwashed by her but not me and not Jace!”

Nissa blinked at her. Chandra became very aware that she’d said all that very fast.

“I was right?” she repeated.

Chandra nodded vigorously.

“About Liliana,” she said, taking deep breaths and willing herself to calm down for just a moment, “About the fact she cares more for manipulating us than saving anything. I thought so too, but I gave her a chance and… I was wrong.”

Nissa nodded, slowly.

“Jace turned up,” Chandra continued, “It turns out Bolas made him wipe his memory. So even if he wanted to meet us on Dominaria, he couldn’t, because he didn’t know who or where we were. He ended up on a plane called Ixalan, literally on a desert island, and ended up having all sorts of adventures before he got his memories back. When he did, he remembered Bolas’ end plan that he found inside his head before the whole mind wipey thing happened.”

“I see,” Nissa replied.

“He also showed us these memories from Amonkhet, which literally had Liliana saying she was manipulating us,” Chandra explained, “I mean, I know those two are complicated, but he wasn’t going to lie about that. He hurt his head, but when he’s better, he’s going back to Ravnica because that’s what Bolas wants next. He wants to destroy Ravnica like he did Amonkhet.”

Exposition done, she looked up at Nissa, who had an expression of faint distress on her very beautiful features. Chandra fisted her hands in her gloves and resisted the urge to hug her again. Nope, you could hug Gids, maybe Jace if he was actually there, but Nissa needed her personal space.

“So you’ve come to recruit me?” Nissa concluded, after a moment’s thought, “To bring me back to the Gatewatch?”

“No!” Chandra protested, feeling like she’d missed the point entirely, before remembering why she was really here.

“Well, yes, and no, kind of both. I’m here because I really really wanted to see you. But Jace would like you to help on Ravnica, but he’s not going to pressure you, and neither will I. Or ask you to rejoin the Gatewatch. Hell, there might not even be a Gatewatch anymore, since we’re all split up about Liliana.”

This seemed to give Nissa further quandary. Chandra hoped she wasn’t driving her away with all her chatter. A lot had happened since last time they’d seen each other and therefore there was no point leaving her in the dark. Chandra let her have some time with her thoughts. Hadn’t she just realised that focusing was a virtue? She should let Nissa focus for a bit. So, she merely took in the sight of the enormous elemental, the bits of dead eldrazi, and the curious collection of wildlife on the elemental’s back, as she waited for Nissa to arrange her thoughts. After so much time spent on a flying boat, being outside was really nice. There was just so much wilderness on Zendikar. Whilst she liked her city comforts, it was kind of cool to be able to see the grass and the sky for miles around. She bet Nissa could show her all sorts of crazy nature stuff here. Probably easier too, now there were less eldrazi about. What had she been doing since she left for Zendikar? Chandra couldn’t help but wonder. Had she been hunting those flying eldrazi? Was she protecting people too? She did love her home so of course she would’ve saved those Kor, even if she hadn’t met them. That was just the sort of person Nissa was! Strong, pretty, reliable, really gods-damn powerful, just look-!

“What did you mean?” Nissa interrupted her thoughts, making Chandra jump a little.

“What did I mean what?” she asked, catching up with the moment all too quickly. Nissa smiled slightly, as if Chandra had done something particularly endearing.

“What did you mean by you ‘really really’ wanting to see me?” Nissa asked.

Chandra felt the heat rise to her face, and not in the ‘my hair is now on fire’ sort of way and more like the ‘oh gods, I really did say that’ kind of way.

“Well, I err,” she verbally flailed for a moment, before settling on:

“I meant what I said. I wanted to see you a lot. I missed you. I mean, I thought, what’s the point of even being in this team if Nissa isn’t there! I mean, apart from the saving people thing, but it wasn’t the same you know? It felt like there was always something missing. Something wrong. Like-like there was a hole in me that nothing could fill, because you weren’t there. With the-the Nissa shaped hole, I couldn’t really think of anything else and, like there’s a part of me missing? We were a good team but also, I felt like I was better, a better person when I was with you and… I guess what I’m trying to say is… is I missed you and I wanted to see if you were alright.”

She felt very warm and not in the normal way. It had all come tumbling out. All the thought she’d been having since she and Nissa parted. All the things she’d wished she’d got to say came out in a rush of clumsy wording and well-intentioned confessions. Of course, she meant every word, but it wasn’t exactly how she’d chosen to have it all brought to light. How she’d imagined it was far more smooth, and well, there’d definitely been a moonlit pool and maybe some flowers. Just after they’d saved the world from Bolas. Now however, she just had to smile awkwardly at the woman who meant so much to her. This was probably a lot for Nissa to take in. Had she overdone it? Oh she should have tried one thing at a time. Stupid Chandra, stupid!

“I,” Nissa appeared momentarily lost for words. She swallowed, taking her staff in both hands as if to steady herself.

“I missed you too.”

It was Chandra’s turn to be surprised.

“I became very accustomed to living alone,” Nissa continued, her voice soft and a little hesitant, “However, since all that we have been through, I often find myself wishing for company. Your company, to be precise. Though my work here is important, I cannot help that my thoughts often wander to wherever you are. It is peculiar, but, I think you are right. It is as if I left something behind on Dominaria. Like a part of me was left with you. And now you say that a part of you is with me… It is most strange.”

Chandra made to talk, but sensed she wasn’t done.

“At first I wondered if that was how it felt to leave friendship behind,” Nissa stated, “But I considered the matter, and I realised, that wherever we are in the multiverse, we can still consider the other a friend. There is no such thing as leaving ‘friendship’ behind in a location. It is a feeling we carry with us. So why did it hurt to part from you?”

“We can work it out,” Chandra offered, “Together. If you want?”

She’d had plenty of crushes over the years, so she was pretty sure she knew what her empty feeling meant. But if Nissa needed some time to work out her feelings, then she’d be patient. Yes patience wasn’t exactly her virtue, but that was just the power Nissa bestowed on her. Nissa was the eye of the storm, the oasis in the desert heat, even being near her made Chandra feel calmer, more in control of herself and her reactions. Nissa's wisdom, her skill, her beauty, all of that deserved to be celebrated, loved, but only at a pace that Nissa would feel comfortable with. It must have been a big leap, going from a solitary life to having to deal with so many characters like the Gatewatch. That just showed how amazing she was in the first place!

“I’ll help you here on Zendikar, if you’d like,” Chandra continued, “Got pretty good at popping those flying ones.”

Nissa smiled.

“Yes, that was very impressive.”

Chandra glowed with pride, quite literally where her hair was concerned.

“Amonkhet,” Nissa said hesitantly, “I wouldn’t see any other plane subjected to such a fate. Ravnica is - it’s not a plane I would wish to frequent, but it does not deserve to be brought to ruin. It’s leylines run in strong and dependable pattern, they would be quite easy to make use of if Bolas does not get there first.”

She appeared to be thinking aloud for a moment. She nodded, seemingly at peace with her own decision.

“You may assist,” she told Chandra, “But first, let us go to Ravnica and see what we may do. Once the plane is free, I would appreciate your help here.”

Perfect! Oh, this was such wonderful news that Chandra couldn’t believe it!

“Jace got his head banged open, so he might not be back on Ravnica yet,” she said, “But we can check back at the old place! If he’s not, well… I’m sure there are some nicer, wilder, parts of Ravnica we can visit. It’ll be fun!”

On instinct, she offered Nissa her hand in a gesture of ‘follow me’. Nissa merely stared at it for a moment, before slowly, ever so slowly, reaching out one hand to take it. Her grip was so strong…

“Let’s go,” she said, “Together.”


End file.
